| Description | From: Alfred, king of the Saxons
To: Sighelm, ealdorman ('dux')
A farm in Farleigh ('Fearnleag') and the Wish ('an myclan wisce') [in Brenchley], containing and 6 acres of meadow, to north, near 'Eadweald sibirhtigne'. Lying with old 'boc-land' [Little Buckland in Maidstone?] at Farleigh to east, the king's land mark to south, west along the furrows as far as the broad way that leads up to 'fealcnes' ford and the river Medway ('mede waege') to north. Old English boundary clause. For life, and to be given to whom he wishes after his death. For an unspecified sum of money. No date. [Date: handwriting.] Original dated 898.
Given at Woolmer ('Wulfamere') [Hampshire].
Balance of opinion, summarised in the Electronic Sawyer, cited below, is that this is a contemporary or near contemporary copy or possibly an original.
Witnesses: Alfred, king of the Saxons; Edward, king of the Saxons; Ordlaf, ealdorman ('dux'); Sigulf, ealdorman ('dux'); Wullaf, ealdorman ('dux'); Beorhtsige, Osferth, Wulfhere and Eadweald, thanes ('minister'); AEthelstan, priest ('sacerdos'); Cuthulf, Ecgferth and Eadhelm, thanes ('minister')
Endorsed with description in 12th cent hands and 'fearnleg' and 'fernleah' in 11th cent hands. |
| Publication Note | Noted in P W Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, an annotated list and bibliography (London, Royal Historical Society, 1968), p157, no 350 .
Calendared in S E Kelly (ed) The Electronic Sawyer (http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/chartwww/eSawyer.99/
eSawyer2.html - consulted Apr 2004) as S282
Transcribed with translation and facsimile in Lieut-Gen J Cameron, with translations by W Basevi Sanders, 'Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts', part i (Ordnance Survey, Southampton, 1878), as no 12
Transcribed in J M Kemble, 'Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici', vol ii (London, 1840), pp128-129, as no 324
Transcribed in W De Gray Birch, 'Cartularium Saxonicum', vol II (London, 1887), pp219-220, as no 576
Transcribed with translation and facsimile in Lieut-Gen J Cameron, with translations by W Basevi Sanders, 'Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts', part i (Ordnance Survey, Southampton, 1878), as no 12 .
Transcribed and discussed in N P Brooks and S E Kelly (eds), Charters of Christ Church, Canterbury (British Academy, Oxford, 2013), pp827-31, as no 99 . Noted in Historical Manuscripts Commission Fifth Report (London, 1876), Appendix, p456 |